Web Page Layout
Let me start by saying, I am not a web designer. I am not all that great with html code either. That’s not what this section is about. What it is about is how to put everything in the right place to help your visitor navigate your site with ease and how to make your web pages as clean as possible and at the same time will compliment the information that your web site provides which is the reason your visitor came to your site in the first place. You don’t need to be a designer to know that. There are plenty of resources out there that provide pre-made templates for free that you can use if you are like me. Read this section before you do that so you will have a better idea of the best type of template to use for your web pages.
Just like everything else that you have read here the layout of your web pages are very important to whether your visitor will stay and look around your site or whether they will go somewhere else. The main thing to understand and to remember is to keep everything simple.
Everything on your web page should be very basic. It should be easy to navigate and be clean in appearance. These are the two most important things to keep at the top of your mind while you are laying out your web pages.
All of your navigation should be done using hyperlinks. You should not use buttons or any other graphic that protrude, blink, or move in any way. They are very distracting and annoying to the visitor. Your navigation links should be positioned on your web page in a place that they can be easily found. One of the best places is to the left of your web page inside a wizbar. A wizbar is simply an area that takes up about 20% of the page in width and will usually have a different color background (but not always) from the rest of the page and is most commonly placed on the left side (not always) of the web page. You simply place your links inside the wizbar in list form. Each link should be individual. Do not use links that expand to a tree. The whole idea is to keep everything simple. In other words each link that is clicked should take your visitor to the desired web page. Each web page should link back to the other web pages so that your visitor can jump around if they want to.
Keep your graphics to a minimum. Select the graphics that best fit your business theme. The best graphics generally are the ones that are used as your background. Any graphic that you do use should say something about your business theme. It should tell your visitor this is who we are and what we do. Do not use graphics that have nothing to do with your business.
Sometimes a lot of pictures need to be used for your site to say what it needs to say. If that is the case, then by all means go ahead and use them just don’t clutter your web page with them. Put pictures on separate web pages instead of trying to throw everything in one place. The easier that your visitor can navigate and the cleaner your web pages are the better your web site will look.
To give you a better idea of what your web page layout should look like, here are some web sites that do this very well. If you do yours in the same way you will have a very nice looking, and very functional web site. Look at the web site that you are on right now. It does everything that I have explained here that a well laid out web site should do. So take a look around here too. Note how easy it is to navigate while at the same time is very clean looking in appearance.
http://www.best-kid-games-online.com
http://www.rent-a-villa-in-tuscany.com
http://www.artellawordsandart.com
The first three sites above pretty much keep with the norm of what a web page layout should look like, while the fourth one, the art site, requires a lot more graphics because of its business theme. Note how this site accomplished that while still keeping that clean look and is still easy to navigate. Take some time to study these web sites. They will help you with putting your web page layout together.
Again, there are plenty of resources out there that have free templates that you can use if you are like me and have two thumbs when it comes to web design. Just make sure that the one that you choose is laid out in a way as described here and that it matches your business theme. Run a google search and type in free theme templates. You should get a long list of web sites that offer them for free. http://google.com Continue to work with your web page layout until you get it right. It is very important that your web pages are easy to read and are easy to navigate.
Once you have gotten everything laid out the way that it should be, you can go ahead and add your business name, lead-in, along with your content to your web pages. Read your lead-in one more time to make sure that it tells your visitor immediately what your business is about. Read through your content again to be sure that everything is the way that you want. If you are using multiple web pages make sure that everything is arranged in the proper order including your links to them. Once you have copied everything over, make sure that your links take you where they are supposed to go. There is nothing worse than clicking on a link and expecting information for that page and getting something different. Make sure that you don’t have any broken links. Read all of your content again. I always find new things wrong after I read it in a new format. In this case HTML format. The change of format changes the way that you look at the content and you will often find new mistakes that you missed before. It’s important that you read it again.
Check over your layout with your content on it. Ask yourself if the layout still works with the content? Does anything about the layout take away from the content? Does your graphics still tell you what your business theme is about? A lot of times after you have added the content to your web pages the graphics are not as telling of your business theme as you originally thought that they were. If that’s the case, go find one that is more appropriate. Don’t ignore it by thinking what you have is good enough. While it will be more work for you, it will be well worth it in the end and will return much more than the extra work that you put in. Remember this is a business, not a hobby. As with any business there will be a lot of work required, especially in the early stages.
When you are finished getting your layout done and your content copied over to your web pages, you can move to the next section about Web Page Optimization